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Went to the Dr again re shoulder as its not getting any better. I have a physio assessment in 2 weeks time but am to do no exercise with it 'til then. I want to start doing something so for the next 4 weeks I will concentrate on some core exercises & Marks hip mobility exercises. I will walk 3-5mi a day (except Sat) & if I feel the urge I will start C25K on the treadmill otherwise that can wait until next month

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This week I will not be posting my numbers. I have been trying several different things out & today I intend to IF for 24hrs, so it would not really be helpful

These last few weeks have been a great experiment & I have learnt a lot but now is the time to get down to the serious business of a long term n=1. As next week is my photo & measure week now would be a good time.

Apart from weight loss my real goals are 1) to be able to listen to my body & eat appropriately & 2) to be able to have a PB treat in the house & not eat it all at once.

So from today my n=1 is:

46g protein, 5g carb, 80% fat = 1020 cals. 16hr IF. 1 tbsp coconut oil taken twice a day as per the Shangri-La Diet (can’t hurt to try as I’m taking it anyway). If my LBM drops after a week I will up the protein by 5g to a max of 62 (1xkg HSIS). If my weight loss stalls or I am hungry I will up the CO by 7g (56 cals) to a max of 1250 total cals where upon I will re-evaluate my n=1 else there will be no further tweaking for the next 12 weeks

I will weigh & post the numbers here once a week but otherwise I intend to be very quite as I now need to focus on other things for a bit

It would be great to use a blood ketone monitor while doing this to find the key numbers but for now I will have to do it the hard way

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Now here’s an odd thing – started the tasteless oil thing as per the Shangri-la diet this am. Put nose clips on to eat th coconut oil – no taste. But as soon as I took the nose clips off I could immediately taste the coconut. Next time I will have to wash it down with water first.

UPDATE: CO still has some taste even if washed down with water. Seth Roberts recommends light olive oil which is refined but I don't want to go down that route. will stick with the CO, nose clips & water for a while

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Tried the CO this am while just holding my nose. So much easier than using the nose clips. Had a good swill out with water so only ended up with a very tiny after taste.

Would prefer to use a runny oil for SLD as holding ones nose & downing CO & water is not very public friendly but I am not using LOOV - its not primal & has been known to be doctored with other oils (if its tasteless how do you know its pure?).

Seth Roberts has apparently done n=1 on other fats so I have started reading his blog

Did come across this though – Butter is cancer inhibiting & the highest food source of CLA so I’m very pleased as it’s a cheap fat compared with the other types

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Fri 22/2 This is day 2 of my foray into the Shangri-La Diet (SDL). I like the idea because it forces me to eat the CO, which I know I should from a health standpoint & because of its metabolic boosting properties. It’s just that eating it in large quantities is so expensive - butter is much cheaper. I also like it because it forces me to be rational about my eating. I can’t start until after the morning shot which means no B/Fast & lunch approx 11am.Then I can’t snack until dinner as I have to allow for the pm shot at around 3pm.

It seems to be working too as I have so far eaten a miserly 500 cal s& I don’t wont anymore. I’m going to force my self to eat dinner in a minute, as my protein count is so low, but I really don’t want it. Snacking is definitely out. I don’t think I’ve felt AS like this before. I just hope it translates to the scales on Monday.

Final numbers: cals 1050 P 40g ratio 16-3-81

PS unofficially weighed today - down another ½ lb so it looks like my new low is sticking. Didn’t check LBM

UPDATE: Its 10:30pm & I have not had the urge to snack on anything at all tonight, despite wandering onto the kitchen several times. This is fantastic. Maybe SLD is the answer although I am slightly concerned with the low cals. Must remember that I have catered for this in my n=1 so we shall see. I WILL NOT tweak.

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Carbs up to day (15g) as I have a portion of endive I want to use up for tea & found a portion of mince in the freezer whilst I was sorting it out. As mince doesn’t feature in my menus going forward (no reason why not it was a 1 off leftover portion & I don’t intend buying anymore for a while) I decided to eat it with the last of the cauliflower so I am having 2 portions of veg, which is unusually for me

So I have worked out the days menu appropriately and added enough fat to get me to 79% which is my absolute lowest, hence the cals are up but still under 1250 so that’s ok. I will be forcing myself to eat it though, even if it means breaking my 7pm IF cut-off time. SLD is working but I do need to get a reasonable amount of calories in.

For me this is a process of experimentation so apart from the fat%, being under the Pg & sticking to the SLD rules, I’m more relaxed about the rest of it at the moment.

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Hit another late night kitchen raid again last night – didn’t bother counting but it must have been about 600 cals – all fats though apart from a couple of grams of protein in the nuts & HC so I’m keeping within the macros just upping the calories – still at least its not 1000 cals & grains or sugar. Fat does seem to have become maybe a bit too pleasurable

His view seems to be that you need to lose BF before trying to gain muscle (females start at 15-16% which is reassuring as that’s my goal BF%) & to lowe4 BF you need to have a large enough deficit (>800cals). This fits well with my current thoughts on my own cal input so a very interesting read (for me at least)

NB: He lists the different ways of measuring BF & suggests none are perfect not even DXA. The hand held machine is just as effective if you use it the same time every day (first thing ion morning before eating or drinking).

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Am adding this post here as a note to me really. This forum is the first place I have heard of vegetables being part of the nightshade family. Whilst looking for how to grind eggshells (natural calcium supplement) I came across this one for making homemade food for dogs & catsWhat Vegetables Should Not Be Fed To Dogs and Cats

& they have a list of nightshades:

beets

collard

eggplants

green peppers

parsley

potatoes

onions (toxic to dogs and cats)

chives (toxic to dogs and cats)

garlic (toxic to dogs and cats)

tomatoes

spinach

Swiss chard

Most importantly I didn’t realize onions are toxic for dogs & that parsley & spinach are nightshades

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Came across this article today, which suggests 1240mg calcium increases fat excretion. I am currently taking 800mg (with Vit D) & was going to stop when I had finished the bottle, as I’m sure I read in one of Marks posts that you shouldn’t take it as a supplement. Also the pills are very large & are the only tablets I have had trouble swallowing – it takes a bit of time to get used to them. A final reason for stopping is that they are calcium carbonate rather than the more absorbable calcium citrate

NB: One thing I have learnt re supplements – most are useless & a waste of money & the RDA% are usually woefully inadequate. Some seems to be making an awful lot of money out of giving people duff information.

Have started looking at the Vit & mineral content in food & will try to get enough that way else I will have to get some calcium citrate.

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I’ve also been doing some better research into IF. From the experimentation I have been doing this month I have liked IF but I wanted to know more about it so that I could still incorporate it into my n=1 along with SLD etc.

I have already heard that BCAA is the way to go rather than whey (at least until I get down to HSIS) &so this protocol makes complete sense to me. For the sake of convenience, he recommends getting BCAA in the form of powder and not tabs. Simply mix 30 g of BCAA powder in a shake and drink one third of it every other hour starting 5-15 minutes pre-workout. Apparently tabs are cheaper, but much more of a hassle (you're going to have to pop a lot of tabs – where have I heard that one before?). Not interested in cost yet as I don’t think I will need to worry too much for a couple of months until I get to a point where I can start training with weights again (shoulder needs to heal first).

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Still wrestling with which oil to use for SLD. Everyone sees to have the best results with Extra Light Olive Oil (ELOO) but my problem with this as I have said before is that a) it is refined, b) it is often mixed with other oils (as with the horse meat scandal who can be sure what the label says?).

The other popular one is refined CO but again I don’t fancy this as it is refined & one of the reasons for taking CO is the health benefits.

Walnut Oil just has too much omega-6 to be consumed in huge quantities although I do like it with endive – in fact walnuts are off my list altogether now for that very reason.

Apparently he also says s people taking it after a meal rather than before also reported a higher success rate.

Having read most of the SLD thread in MDA & shovelqueen's thread on the SLD forum it is obviously no magic bullet but & hasn’t helped with the late night munchies but that is probably a mind thing. (Have just put Jon Gabriel’s book on my Amazon list to help with the mind games

It also seems that it can take several weeks if you are young (no) female (ok yes) & near your ideal BMI (5 points off so no) but I’m taking the CO anyway & it helps with meal timings so I’ll continue to include it in my n=1 for now

PS: found this interesting lecture that Seth Roberts gave re his n=1 with butter & other fats